Degeneration and gene expression can be examined, identified or compared by observing degenerated regions in many stained thin section specimens such as thin section samples of an organic object. Only a microscope or the like is available as a tool for observing a microscopic area in thin section samples of an organic object or capturing an image thereof. A system for observation with a microscope is disclosed in Japanese Patent laid open Publication S60-79320/1985. A microscope disclosed in Japanese Patent laid open Publication 2003-295063 has a two-dimensional charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor and a linear sensor. An imaging area for the linear sensor is set by observing an image in an imaged area of the two-dimensional CCD sensor. Then, images are captured by shifting the position of the linear sensor successively in the imaging area, and the obtained images are synthesized.
In order to study tissues and immunology, it is necessary to search and image specified portions in many slides and to store the data. However, this job takes a long time. Then, in the above-mentioned prior art system described in Japanese Patent laid open Publication S60-79320, samples are supplied automatically by using a loader and an unloader.
However, when a microscopic area in a thin section sample of an organic object is observed, an apparent degenerated region and a non-degenerated area cannot be observed simultaneously in a limited field of view of a microscope. An image in a wide field of view can be obtained by synthesizing a series of successive images captured with a microscope. Because an observed area is narrow due to the limitation on view angle, it is necessary to synthesize the many images with a computer. However, there are problems. For example, the quality of the images is bad, and the synthesis process takes a long time. Further, because the illumination is not uniform within the field of view of the microscope, the obtained image is a mosaic with discontinuous tones or it has a low quality. Thus, it is difficult to process the images for comparison of the resultant entire image. Therefore, an automatic check and the like were difficult previously.